Gone Isn't Finite
by AliceUnderSkies13
Summary: What happens when an unstoppable force hits an immovable object? *For Nerumi H*.


**A/N: Based on a prompt from **Nerumi H**. Ok, so all of you are going to have to have an open mind when reading this lol. I basically inserted Rapunzel into Jack's era, made them childhood friends, and had Jack not lose his memories for the sake of this story. This is an AU, obviously haha. I just kept writing, and this is what finally came out.**

**Enjoy and please review :). **

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_Prompt: "What happens when an unstoppable force hits an immovable object?" _

Stone, hard and cold. She's never liked that feeling. So bare, so empty, like she's touching the surface of the moon. It's beyond her reach, though, that blank face. She's never felt the moon or the stars. How can she judge it from way down here?

Down being the Earth.

Here being the cemetery.

It's that time of year again. The metal gates are dusted with snowflakes. Hinges creak as the wind passes through. Winds, ghosts, same thing. It all feels the same to her. Against her back, in her hair and in her eyes. She feels it all over. Claws raking her body.

A chill goes up her spine. Green eyes widen in the thick frost. Could that be him? She remembers his fingers dancing up her spine. They used to wind through her hair and brush her eyelashes like snowflakes. Frozen skin and bones. Each glass figurine, delicate to touch, hitting her cheeks.

Rapunzel closes her eyes, trying to block the question from her mind.

But it comes anyways. Could it really be him?

No, of course not. What a silly thought.

Because Jack is gone. She likes that words a lot better than dead. "Gone" isn't finite. It speaks of tomorrow, dragging its finger along the horizon and opening the world up to a new day. Maybe he'll come back. Gone today, here tomorrow. Her eyes shut tight; she tries to believe that gone isn't finite.

Nothing is forever. Actually, no, that isn't true. Death is forever. It can never be stopped.

Rapunzel covers her face with her hands. The tears come fast this time. "No, he's not dead!"

She falls against the stone, hard and cold. Of course it's cold, it's a tombstone. Something she could never move out of this frozen ground. No matter how hard she pushes, it will be there.

Forever.

Tears drip down the stone. Deep into the engraved letters, Jackson Overland. They were friends. The sun and the moon. He reminded her of snow and ice.

Snow melts, unfortunately. Fades into spring. White drips down. Rapunzel thinks of her paints on an empty canvas. Whenever she's alone, she tries to paint him. All of the different poses. Perched on a tree branch, brown hair covered with leaves. Ice skating across the frozen pond. He holds her hand. They spin. The forest circles around her like a carousel.

She tries to paint that scene whenever she's alone. Which is basically all of the time. It never comes out right. His face eludes her. Slowly, she's forgetting what he looked like.

But this can't happen. Time is slipping through a cracked hourglass, sand falling at her feet. Pour the dust into her broken hands. She watches it fall through the cracks in her fingers. She's the hourglass, time is memory.

Her arms embrace the tombstone. The letters are cold beneath her cheek.

Cold ice beneath her feet. Why did Jack have to go ice skating that day? She will never forget that, seeing his sister after the accident. She's shivering and crying. Her knees tremble as she hugs herself and tries to speak.

"Jack…Jack fell…"

Fell is a much better word than died. Because if you fall, you can always get back up. Rapunzel still believes that. He'll get up one day and hug his sister and bury his face in Rapunzel's hair like he used to. They'll play in the forest and have snowball fights every winter.

"He'll come back. I promised that I would show him my paintings." She feels the lump in her throat. It's so cold out here, her bones are shaking. "And when I promise something, I never break that promise. Ever."

Eyes wide open as fresh tears fall. Fall down reddened cheeks and into the snow. Snow falling fast and hard. Hard stone under her fingernails. Fingernails digging into that name.

His name.

She bites her lip, drawing blood. And then she sobs. Blood smears across the date of death. Tears touch the date of birth. Cracked lips graze his name. Jack.

"I have so many paintings to show you." She huddles as close as she can to the tombstone. Talking fast into a dead, cold rock. "So many colors, so many pictures of you. I was going to show you, honestly, I was just embarrassed. My paintings, they're like a part of me, you know? Pieces of my heart. I wasn't ready before, but that day, when you went ice skating with your sister, I was going to show you. I swear, I was going to. And it was a picture of us, too. Leaning against each other."

She sniffs and hugs the stone tighter. "I-I guess we're leaning against each other now, huh?"

Her voice is so high it gets lost in the wind. She can barely whisper.

There it is again, the chill up her spine. The wind is trying to get her attention, or maybe—

No, it isn't him. It will never be him. He's gone. He reminded her of winter, but he hasn't become it. It's all in her head, the feelings and distractions. Are there fingers tapping her shoulder? No, it's just the wind. Are those words whispered in her ear? No, it's just a couple of snowflakes.

Jack was…is a person. Not the wind, not a ghost. Though he could be either. They all feel the same to her.

But still, is someone shouting at her? No, Rapunzel, it's just the coming snowstorm.

How long has she been out here, clinging to his grave? Hours pass. The dust is almost gone. Her hourglass is almost empty. Each eyelash is sheathed in ice. Thin fingers are frozen stiff. She is still and silent, clinging to death.

She could never move his tombstone.

She could never stop his death.

So are these two things the same? A force and an object, similar in every way.

She doesn't know. She will never know. Because her hourglass is cracked and empty. The snow and ice have claimed her. Rapunzel is gone.

Behind her, a boy with white hair is horrified. He hovers inches above the ground, staff in hand. How long has he been out here, yelling at her?

He found her at the cemetery, like he does every year. The gates are dusted with snowflakes. Hinges creak as he passes through. He's nothing but the wind to her now.

They used to be friends. When he was alive, they did everything together. She knew who Jackson Overland was, but she never knew Jack Frost. And as he tapped her shoulder and sent chills up her spine and screamed into her ear, he prayed that she would notice.

But now she's gone.

How? How? How?! He's been watching her the whole time. He tried to drag her away, calm the storm, save her. Nothing.

He could never move her body.

He could never stop her death.

He falls to his knees. Falling through her, into her. She passes right through him, but he feels her there. Nimble fingers dyed with paint, the tips of her golden locks spilling across the snow, all of it. Each bone, each echo of a heartbeat. He hears them all inside his head.

"I was there…always there." He runs his hand down his face. There's no attempt to stop the tears.

Fingers on his own grave, he cries.

Clouds break in the sky. Moonbeams appear on his skin. Man in Moon…

He jumps back, stumbling into the snow. These lights, they're everywhere. And they're on Rapunzel.

Man in Moon has chosen another. Green eyes snap open.

No one can stop death; no one can move a grave with their bare hands. But maybe there's another way. Maybe they can pass right through each other, like wind or ghosts. Pass on into life.


End file.
